4.1 PIC Hardware Development Boards

Microcontroller development boards are available in many shapes and sizes. Some simple boards include a microcontroller, clock circuitry, power supply and a few LEDs. Some more advanced boards contain LCDs, graphics LCDs (GLCDs), push-button switches, USB ports, CAN bus ports, serial communication ports, in-circuit-debugging module, and so on.

Some of the commonly used development boards and their specifications are described in this section.

4.1.1 Super Bundle Development Kit

The Super Bundle development kit (see Figure 4.1), manufactured by microEngineering Labs Inc., is a complete integrated development board with the following features:

  • PICBASIC PRO compiler;
  • MicroCode Studio Plus integrated development environment with in-circuit debugger;
  • LAB-X1 experimenter board with 5 V power supply, 40-pin ZIF socket, oscillator, reset circuit, LEDs, LCD, serial EEPROM, real-time clock, temperature sensor, servo drive, RS232/RS485 ports, IR interface, speaker and prototyping area;
  • microcontroller programmer and programming adaptor;
  • mains adaptor, USB cable and serial cable.

4.1.2 PIC18 Explorer Board

The PIC18 Explorer Board (see Figure 4.2) manufactured by Microchip Inc., can be used in the development of PIC18 microcontroller based projects. The board contains:

Figure 4.1 Super Bundle development kit. (Reproduced with permission from microEngineering Labs)

  • sample PIC18F8722 and PIC18F87J11 (plug-in module) microcontrollers;
  • 28–80 pin microcontroller ...

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